I give it only four stars not because it is not an important, vital book, but because the journal entries are necessarily fragmentary, disjointed and a little hard to absorb sometimes.

This is a book that has to find you at the right time. You could easily become bored or restless reading it if you weren’t in the right mood.

Nin was a beautiful writer and I often think she is misrepresented as a writer of erotica. What she wrote about so well was her sexuality, in all its complexity. In her stories she tends to play down the most important part of herself, her poetic soul. For that reason they are not her best work. Much of her best work is here, in her careful analysis of her sexual responses and her frank, unflinching and persistent process of self-discovery. Do not expect it to turn you on, though. Some of it will make you cry and depress you for days. Some of it will make you euphoric to discover that at least you are not alone.